2024 Purdue Football Coaching Search - Barry Odom
Who Is He?
Bsrry Odom is the current coach of UNLV and former coach of his alma mater, Missouri. We even talked to the Mizzodcast about Odom prior to Purdue and Missouri playing around six years ago. Odom was elevated to head coach of Missouri at age 38 after Gary Pinkel retired due to health issues in 2015. He did alright for awhile but eventually was replaced. Maybe he just wasn’t ready. Sounds familiar.
Odom then spent a few years at Arkansas as the DC before getting another chance to be a head man at UNLV in 2023. In the past two seasons, he’s won 19 games and had the Rebs playing this year for the Mountain West Conference championship. Also this season, Odom had to navigate his QB quitting after a 3-0 start over a claim of not being paid money he’d been promised. Despite this, the Rebels won ten games.
Why would he be successful at Purdue?
Odom reminds me a bit of Danny Hope. A bit of a good-natured goof, all heart, the kind of guy his players love and want to run through a wall for. Also similar to Hope, it would seem he needs a highly-talented OC on staff to be successful. If he brings his staff and some of the talent UNLV parlayed into their best season in decades, Purdue could see a nice bump right away.
Why could he flop at Purdue?
Well, also because he reminds me of Danny Hope. If he winds up Purdue’s coach, you need to hope his flame-out at Mizzou was due to it being too much, too soon and not enough support around him.
Would he come to Purdue?
Probably, yes. He’s at UNLV and is making around $1.75M. Moving back to one of the biggest two conferences has to be appealing.
